


Alive

by islndgurl777



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: 1x12 from Michael's mom's perspective, Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 15:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18501499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/islndgurl777/pseuds/islndgurl777
Summary: She’s so tired, but she hasn’t given up yet. She hasn’t given in and let herself die, and for the life of her, she can’t figure out why. There’s an itch in the back of her head, a voice that tells her she needs to keep holding on, because not all is lost. So she does.





	Alive

**Author's Note:**

> I am so emotionally devastated by 1x12, so obviously I had to write a thing. My poor boy. Written from Michael's mom's POV.
> 
> Title from Pearl Jam. Unbeta'd.

She doesn’t know how long she’s been here. They’d fled their home too quickly to learn much about Earth’s rotations or orbit, but she knows she’s lived most of her life in a cell on this planet. She feels her body is nearing its end, far too soon for their species.

 

They’d arrived on Earth too quickly to take precautions regarding its inhabitants, so she’s been tortured and interrogated and separated from her family all that time.

 

The humans have harvested and learned what they can from her and the others, so they’ve mostly been forgotten in their prison, only worth keeping alive in case they can squeeze one more piece of information from them.

 

She’s so tired, but she hasn’t given up yet. She hasn’t given in and let herself die, and for the life of her, she can’t figure out why. There’s an itch in the back of her head, a voice that tells her she needs to keep holding on, because not all is lost. So she does.

 

///

 

She’s been in a cell with nothing but her own mind and body for company for ages. When her heart skips a beat for an unknown reason, she grows concerned. That’s definitely not normal, nor is the feeling of anxious exhilaration she’s experiencing. There’s no reason for her to feel that way, nothing new around that would cause that physical reaction.

 

Her heartbeat quickens and the feeling grows, with an additional dose of dread and fear. Something’s coming...some _one_ ’s coming, and everything is about to change. This is what she’s been holding on for.

 

///

 

There are two men arguing in the hall outside of her cell. She’s trying to pay attention to what they’re saying, but she can’t. There’s a loud, insistent buzzing noise in her head that’s making it hard for her to focus, or think. One of the men steps closer, shaking his head…he feels…

 

_Oh_ , he looks just like his father. Those curls, more unruly than ever. His eyes…

 

He looks at her in confusion, and her chest aches with it. He doesn’t remember her.

 

Both men turn toward the entrance, and the other man pushes her son...pushes him into an empty cell by hers. Her mind snaps back into focus. She wants to scream at the top of her lungs, because _he doesn’t belong in a cell, no, no, no, he can’t be here, he’s dead, dead, died in the crash thank goodness,_ and _he can’t be pushed into the cell next to her, no matter how much she’s longed to see him after all this time, no, no, please, not him. Please._

 

///

 

He exits the cell on his own when the other man calls for him. They talk, and he stays behind with her, watching her from the other side of the cell door. He doesn’t know who she is, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to force the door open.

 

He’s talking to her, asking who she is, and her heart breaks. Her son, her precious boy, who could make her laugh whenever she was feeling sad. Who loved her more than anything, and who she fled her home to protect. He doesn’t know who she is, but that doesn’t stop him from lifting his hand to try to break the glass.

 

She knows it won’t work, but she just wants to hold him again. She just wants to touch his cheek and pull him into her arms and rest his head on her shoulder like he did when he was young. So she doesn’t try to stop him.

 

Alarms start blaring around them when the glass cracks and she feels something she hasn’t in a very long time: fear. Somehow he’d escaped capture at the crash site and grown up free, and now his life is in danger trying to rescue her.

 

His eyes are wild as he picks up a fire extinguisher and starts beating on the glass. A minute later a new man runs in, telling him they need to go. They argue, and her son tells the man he can’t leave his family, and the man--undeniably a human--screams that her son is his family too.

 

Everything inside of her freezes as she takes in his desperate plea. Humans have been torturing and killing her kind for countless years. She hates them for all they’ve done to her and her family and friends. They’re monsters.

 

But somehow her son has survived on this planet, earned the love of one of them, and from the blatantly false declaration he’d screamed at the man, learned to love him in return.

 

He’s always had a big heart and honest eyes.

 

He won’t be able to free her, and she is not willing to let him die when she’s just discovered he’s been safe all this time. She doesn’t have much strength left, but she’s about to die anyway, so she can do this one last thing. She will never be able to hold him again, but she can give him one last message.

 

She lifts her hand to the glass, pushing all of her power into it towards her son. He turns away from the human and lifts his hand to meet hers on the other side of the glass. She uses the last of her strength to connect.

 

_I love you,_ she says as soon as she feels him there, pushing every bright moment she can remember with him through the bond.

 

He starts to smile and it’s the most beautiful sight she’s ever seen. Her darling boy.

 

_Run. Please._

 

He breaks the connection and turns back to the human. They grip each other tightly, foreheads touching, words exchanged too quietly for her to hear, but she can see the man holding her son upright and it comforts her. He turns back to her one last time, eyes filled with tears.

 

She doesn’t look away until they’re gone.

 

There’s not much time left, but she closes her eyes and pictures him again, pretends he’s standing in front of her still. She imagines lifting her hand and touching his curls, running her fingers across his cheek. She counts heartbeats and holds that picture of her son in her mind until fire erupts around her.


End file.
